Applying for a Master’s Degree in France: Complete Timeline
Note: This information is accurate as of October 21st, 2020.
When applying for a master’s degree in France, it is important to keep track of deadlines. You will have to submit documents, write essays, respond to messages, and more all in a timely manner to ensure that you are able to apply and be accepted to your programs of choice.
“Applying for a Master’s Degree in France” is a series of articles aimed at helping foreign students, especially Americans, apply to master’s programs in France by providing the information they need all in one place. In today’s article, we will be providing you with our timeline, from beginning our applications to accepting our offers of admission, to give you an example of what you can expect.
Every year, Campus France publishes a list of major deadlines to help students stay on track with their applications. Due to COVID-19, applicants for the 2020-2021 school year, like Maria and I, had to be very patient and flexible as dates and procedures were constantly changing. However, we’ll provide you with information about Campus France’s original timeline (pre COVID-19), their adjusted timeline (post COVID-19), and how our personal timelines coincided with those of Campus France.
We hope that this article gives you an idea of what the timeline for applying for a master’s degree in France is like. Please keep in mind that Maria and I applied to our programs in the midst of a global pandemic, and that this had an effect on the dates found in our personal timelines! Your personal timeline, in any case, is liable to be quite different from ours. If you have any questions or want to know more, make sure to leave us a comment.
Check out the other articles in our Applying to a Master’s Degree in France series:
- How to Choose a Program
- Important Documents You Need
- How to Complete the Online Application
- Campus France Phone Interview
- Will You be Accepted to a Program in France?
- Accepting an Offer of Admission
8 Comments
Tay
Y’all are amazing!
Jalen & Maria
Thanks!
Adriana Culotta
Did you two ever consider applying to écoles de commerce or other grandes écoles ? I’m debating, but realizing I have to study for the GRE on top of all of the administration is making me reconsider…did you need the GRE for any of your applications?
Jalen & Maria
Hi, Adriana! We never seriously considered applying to Grandes Écoles because one of the major reasons we are studying in France is the affordability. Grandes Écoles typically cost 5,000 € to 10,000 € per year, while we only pay 243 € per year. This is important to us as we are completely self-financed. We both study at a public French university and did not need to submit GRE results. The only standardized tests we included in our applications were our DALF C2 results. Hope this helps and good luck!
Katie
Hi Jalen and Maria! This is all super helpful. I am going through the Campus France process currently. Did you have all of your supporting documentation translated i.e – academic letters of recommendation, job offer letters, etc? Also, which translation service did you use? I’m currently in the States and not sure which ones are reputable. Thanks!
Jalen & Maria
Hi Katie, we are glad our blog is helping you! The only documents that we had translated were our undergrad diplomas and transcripts. Everything else that we uploaded and everything that we wrote directly in the application platform was in French. We used a service called Rush Translate to have our documents translated from English to French.
Check out these articles linked below as well as the others in the “Applying for a Master’s Degree in France” series if you haven’t already. They may be helpful. Good luck!
https://thefrancofile.net/applying-for-a-masters-degree-in-france-important-documents/
https://thefrancofile.net/applying-for-a-masters-degree-in-france-filling-out-the-etudes-en-france-application/
Tori
This might be a stupid question, but what is the comparability statement?
Cheers
T
Jalen & Maria
Hello,
The statement of comparability from ENIC-NARIC, or l’attestation de comparabilité, is a document that conveys to French institutions to what French degree your previous degree, or years of higher education, is equivalent. Our bachelor’s degrees were deemed equivalent to a French licence, and therefore, the French institutions to which we applied knew that a master’s level education was appropriate for us. Be aware that this document cost us 70 € and can take up to 3 months to receive from the time of your request.
Check out our article about important documents we used to apply to master’s degrees in France.